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Ryuu96 on 19 March 2025

Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady, citing higher economic uncertainty.

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— MSNBC (@msnbc.com) 19 March 2025 at 18:11

2000+ Jewish professors, staff, and students circulating a letter on Trump-Vance's arrest of Mahmoud Khalil:

"We hold various views…But we are united in denouncing…anyone who invokes our name—and cynical claims of antisemitism—to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities."

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— Prem Thakker ツ (@premthakker.bsky.social) 18 March 2025 at 16:49

Letter:

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— Prem Thakker ツ (@premthakker.bsky.social) 18 March 2025 at 16:49



Around the Network
Ryuu96 on 19 March 2025

White House aides are preparing to impose new tariffs on most imports on April 2, laying the groundwork for an escalation in global economic hostilities that President Donald Trump has called “Liberation Day.”

Through his first two months in office, the president has raised tariffs on roughly $800 billion in imports from China, Mexico and Canada, although estimates vary widely. These tariffs have sent the stock market careening and raised the risks of a U.S. recession, while inviting retaliation against domestic industries by trade partners.

Despite the blowback, senior Trump advisers are now publicly pledging to create a new tariff regime that would impose new duties on trade with most countries that trade with the United States. A person familiar with internal planning, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect private deliberations, confirmed administration officials are preparing tariffs on “trillions” of dollars in imports.

Trump Aides Prep More Tariffs For April 2 On Imports Worth Trillions For "Liberation Day"

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has publicly defended Trump’s tariffs, but in private, he has reportedly told friends he’s “not thrilled” with the president’s impulsive approach. Lutnick has helped lower tensions at times with U.S. trading partners like Canada, but he is also reportedly worried Trump’s rhetoric on tariffs may make it harder to secure a strong deal with Canada and Mexico as the first review for the USMCA trade agreement is set for July.

Commerce Secretary Lutnick Reportedly Told Friends In Private He's 'Not Thrilled' With Trump's Whipsaw Approach To Tariffs

Prime Minister Mark Carney signalled Tuesday he is in no rush to speak to his U.S. counterpart about the ongoing trade war between the two countries, saying a call will come at the "appropriate time."

Speaking to reporters in Iqaluit after returning from a two-day trip abroad, Carney said he's not consumed by what he diplomatically called U.S. President Donald Trump's "initiatives," or near-daily trade threats, saying his main focus is building up the Canadian economy so that it's more resilient to global economic challenges, including the American protectionist push.

Carney Signals He's In No Rush To Speak With Trump After Visit To U.K, France

On Wednesday, March 19, the French government deplored the ban on entering the United States and the subsequent rejection of a French researcher who had come to attend a conference, because he had expressed a "personal opinion" on American research policy.

"I learned with concern that a French researcher" on a mission for the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), "who was on his way to a conference near Houston was banned from entering the United States before being expelled," said the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Philippe Baptiste, in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP). "This measure was allegedly taken by the US authorities because this researcher's phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friendly relations in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration's research policy," he added.

French Researcher Turned Away For Expressing "A Personal Opinion On The Policy of the Trump Administration"

Donald Trump has fired the two Democratic commissioners on the US Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, further blurring the lines of bipartisanship at regulatory agencies. The fired commissioners are confirmed to be Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. Bedoya confirmed his firing in a post on social media.

“I’m a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. The President just illegally fired me,” he wrote.

Trump Fires FTC’s Only Two Democrats: ‘The President Just Illegally Fired Me’



Ryuu96 on 19 March 2025

The GOP chairs of the Senate and House Armed Services committees issue a joint statement in response to the below story indicating Trump DoD wants to significantly restructure the combatant commands.

"We will not accept significant changes to our warfighting structure that are made without a rigorous interagency process, coordination with combatant commanders and the Joint Staff, and collaboration with Congress. Such moves risk undermining American deterrence around the globe and detracting from our negotiating positions with America's adversaries"

Trump Admin Considers Giving Up NATO Command That Has Been Exclusively American Since Eisenhower

More concern from Republicans, very concerned, Trump is concerning them, they'll write about how concerned they are.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 19 March 2025

Jumpin on 19 March 2025

The US government continues its war on science with a catastrophic 50% cut to NASA

https://spacenews.com/nasa-gets-extension-to-submit-layoff-plans/#:~:text=The%20recent%20and%20proposed%20layoffs,many%20in%20the%20space%20community



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

SanAndreasX on 19 March 2025
Ryuu96 said:

The GOP chairs of the Senate and House Armed Services committees issue a joint statement in response to the below story indicating Trump DoD wants to significantly restructure the combatant commands.

"We will not accept significant changes to our warfighting structure that are made without a rigorous interagency process, coordination with combatant commanders and the Joint Staff, and collaboration with Congress. Such moves risk undermining American deterrence around the globe and detracting from our negotiating positions with America's adversaries"

Trump Admin Considers Giving Up NATO Command That Has Been Exclusively American Since Eisenhower

More concern from Republicans, very concerned, Trump is concerning them, they'll write about how concerned they are.



Around the Network
SvennoJ on 19 March 2025

America’s Constitutional Crisis (w/ Katherine Franke) | The Chris Hedges Report




SvennoJ on 20 March 2025

US immigration authorities detain, seek to deport pro-Palestine Georgetown student

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-seeks-deport-pro-palestinian-georgetown-university-student-2025-03-20/

US immigration authorities have detained an Indian man studying at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and are seeking to deport him for allegedly spreading pro-Hamas propaganda, the student’s lawyer said on Wednesday.

Federal agents arrested Badar Khan Suri outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, on Monday night, and he is being detained in Alexandria, Louisiana, awaiting a hearing date in immigration court, his lawyer said.

According to a statement shared with Fox News, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has accused Suri of having ties to Hamas, as well as spreading pro-Hamas propaganda and anti-Semitism on social media.

The DHS did not cite evidence for its claims against Suri, who is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, living in the US on a student visa and is married to an American citizen.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Suri’s activities “rendered him deportable”, according to the statement.



SvennoJ on 20 March 2025

Trump Disgustingly Uses Gaza For Free Speech Crackdown

Tariq Habash, former senior official at the Dept. of Education under President Biden, founder & director of the organization A New Policy, discusses the Trump administration’s actions taken regarding student loans.

Habash explores why, despite Democrats’ desires, the issue of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza will not go away under Trump, with his dreams to fully redevelop the Gaza strip in his own immaged backed by his revamping of Israel’s assault and a domestic crackdown (including full-on dissappearings) of pro-Palestinian activism, with the recent abduction of Mahmoud Khalil working as Trump’s perfect crime to wage war on the rights of Black and Brown permanant residents – capitalizing on Democratic Leadership’s commitment to genocide to minimize dissent from the opposition.

‘American democracy died this weekend’, says US expert | LBC

LBC's Washington Correspondent Simon Marks speaks to James O'Brien.

Judges have been left 'ballistic' and 'incredulous' after Donald Trump's administration deported hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, despite a court order. The alleged gang members' ultimate destinatio was a mega-prison in El Salvador.

A judge then ordered the planes back, telling the government's lawyers verbally that they should do so "however that's accomplished — whether turning around the plane or not." But the court order was never heeded, and the planes stayed the course.

Simon Marks joins experts warning that “America’s constitutional order has died”. 'It is absolutely chilling,' says James O'Brien.


From the comments

"As a German I always wondered how it was possible that someone like Htler got elected. I always thought maybe different times. Less information, people were not that educated.. something about those lines. Now I know, the answer is the price of eggs."



Jumpin on 20 March 2025

Just an update on things from Canada as Liberal support continues to soar.

Jumpin said:
Jumpin said:

From what I understand, the Canadian liberal party (led by Trudeau) was more or less looking for an excuse to tighten border security against the US anyway.
Second, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario (and brother to the Crack Mayor who died a few years ago) has threatened to cut off energy from Ontario to the US in retaliation against Trump.

In Canada, it's fair to note that the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario are more like a neoliberal party, or like a Reagan era Republican party, while the Canadian Liberals are a social Democratic Party, similar, but further to the left than the Democratic Party. They aren't the same as the Conservative Party of Canada, which (from what I understand) lean more on the reactionary side of the spectrum, and are more about rhetoric, slogans, and culture wars than enacting good policy or good governance. But someone who has lived in the country longer than me can probably elaborate more.

As a note, there is still a lot of anti-immigration stuff, even among the Eastern Canadian Progressive Conservatives voters, but I'm unsure if there is much of a racial component to it from the voters - I work for a very conservative guy and he hires and socializes a lot with people of a variety of ethnicities (particularly Sikhs, Lebanese, and Brazilians). Don't get me wrong, there are racist communities here, but most of the anti-immigration stuff has to do with the perceived housing market crisis (which, IMO is fairly mild in Canada... well, relative to other places. It's comparatively cheap to live here, but if you are young, starter homes are almost non-existent - IMO, that's the crisis. You basically need to start at 300K CAD, but, those 300 CAD houses are fairly big with big properties - depending on where you live - I don't live in Toronto or Vancouver, which are notoriously expensive.

Well! That post got off track!

When I posted this two and a half months ago, the Liberal party of Canada trailed the Conservatives by 29%.

In the time since, the Conservative movement has collapsed, and the Liberals now lead by 2%

An update from Canada: 

Three years of Conservative dominance of the opinion polls collapses in two months. A few things led to this happening.

1. Conservatives have no solutions for people while shilling for the deeply unpopular oil industry.

2. Bombarding Canadians with irritating "verb the noun" style political ad spam with little depth and are quite grating to Canadians during a time of rising Canadian patriotism.

3. Much of that political ad spam does Trump style bashing of Canada, which in turn shows the Conservative government fund paying to associate themselves with the most unpopular elements of the US government.

4. General shift away from being swayed by pessimism and cynicism, Liberals = optimists, Conservatives = cynical pessimists.

5. The general incompetency of the Conservative Party's strategy. Their political messaging is really missing the mark, about as effective as very transparent strawmen or red herrings. In other words, they're not tackling anything real because they don't have much of a case. They're just making stuff up and hoping it sticks... and for anyone who's paying attention and has half a brain, it's not.

As a note, the political ideology of federal Canadian parties are as follows: Liberals (Center to left of center), Conservatives (Right of center to right) and NDP (Left of center to left), Bloc (Regionalism left of center), Greens (Green politics), PPC (Alternative für Kanada).

There's another story here, many NDP voters are also shifting to support Liberals in response to the Conservative attacks. Many of them for the first time.

At least when it comes time for me to swear allegiance to that fucking King, I won't feel so dirty doing so this time (yes, even if you swore allegiance to the crown in another country, you still have to swear again in Canada because technically, it's a different crown, just the same head).

How a difference a month makes:

The Liberals not only lead in a few polls, but now lead in ALL polls, and continue to widen the lead: Recent polls showing anywhere from 2%, to 4%, to 6%, to 9%, to even 17.7% lead ahead of the Conservative Party of Canada.

I also believe that changeups in the Liberal Party will increase Canadian patriotism and reinforce alignment with European and Latin American partners, while increasingly joining Western civilization while turning more away from the authoritarian elements in Chimerica and India.

And most Canadians want to work with the American blue. Help expand democracy and liberty, and oppose the authoritarianism of the corporate aristocracy and the hate-mongering stupidity of the MAGA brownshirts.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

Ryuu96 on 20 March 2025

I hope Canada is prepared for the onslaught of Russian and American backed disinformation that will be thrown their way during the election. One reason why I think Carney needs to call an election ASAP before Republican Party + Musk and Putin can successfully interfere into the elections, Carney needs to give their bullshit as little time as possible to spread.

Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 20 March 2025